Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London to parent from West Bengala, and then raised in the United States. After winning a Pulitzer Prize (for her first book, the collection of short stories The Interpreter of Maladies, published in 1999), and publishing three other books (The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth and The Lowland), she made a decision that seemed crazy to many: she decided to move to Rome and begin writing in Italian. It was an exercise that came about spontaneously, and then became a necessity, a means to immerse herself in a new world, to become a new Jhumpa, to go in search of that something “that can change our life,” which exists “always outside of us.”
The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories is a landmark collection curated by Lahiri, which brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy’s vibrant and diverse short story tradition, from the birth of the modern nation to the end of the twentieth century. Poets, journalists, visual artists, musicians, editors, critics, teachers, scientists, politicians, translators: the writers that inhabit these pages represent a dynamic cross section of Italian society, their powerful voices resonating through regional landscapes, private passions and dramatic political events. This wide-ranging selection includes well known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating new discoveries. More than a third of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, several of them by Lahiri herself.
In collaboration with IIC London and Penguin Books.
The event will be introduced and moderated by Prof. Emeritus, TCD, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin.
Event in Italian and English.
Reservation no longer available